When the sun breaks through a rip in the clouds and floods the vistas with golden light, heads go up and lungs expand. It’s like a mini-vacation, a kiss of beauty from the heavens, a note of encouragement that brighter days are coming.
I hope these posts will be “Sun Breaks” for your soul.

About Me

Joan Rawlins Husby's latest book, "A Logger's Daughter: Growing Up in Washington's Woods," is available by contacting the author at rainsongpress@frontier.com. Joan grew up in a logging community near Granite Falls, Washington. She attended Seattle Pacific College, then taught in Washington State and in Fairbanks, Alaska. Joan has authored the Adventure Quest Series and the Megan Parnell Mysteries, eight books for young people (Concordia Publishing House). She writes articles and poetry and has contributed to many book collections. She and Hank enjoy travel, reading, exploring, gardening, and their combined family of seven children and numerous grand and great-grandchildren.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

North Dakota Schoolteacher, Winter of 1949

New Leipzig, ND, 1950 Kids on their way to school

While searching for another document on my computer, I came across this story, sent to me in the winter of 2008-2009 by my mother’s cousin, Ursula Wunderlich, of Voltaire, ND. Since then, Ursula has finished her time here on earth so I can’t ask permission to use this, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. She wrote it originally for her home-town newspaper, and I know there are many mid-westerners who can identify right now with the weather she describes:

“This bad winter weather brings to mind a time in this writer's life,
60 years ago, to be exact. It was January 1949, and I was teaching a rural
school in McLean County, Otis Township, in the Strawberry Lake vicinity.
Fresh out of high school, I was asked to take on the job, as teachers
were hard to come by. Having no college degree, or practice teaching to lean on, this was quite a challenge, to say the least. I had 11 students in
all grades except the second & sixth grades. Patron families represented
were Alvir Anderson, Ervin Golly, Miles Harmon, Palmer Madsen, and Henry Sheelar. [The Andersons were also cousins.] I was my own janitor, hot lunch cook, and custodian of whatever needed to be done. This included carrying coal from the shed near the school house, storm or no storm.

I stayed at the school during the week, if possible. Didn't think of it at the time, but I should have had a rope strung from the school building to the shed, so as not to lose my way, as there were times when one could not see one building from the other. I firmly believe that the good Lord had angels watching overtime, or I wouldn't be here today.

That January, we had full-fledged blizzards every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. No one came to school, except teacher and her pals-- mice! Thursday & Friday as many of the students as could, arrived. On Friday I would ride home with either of two families to spend the weekend. This arrangement was designed to save the precious coal supply, as the weekend coal then could be on hand for [school] days.

Sundays were usually calm, & I'd either walk the mile from one family to the school late Sunday afternoon, or the patron would take me there with horses & sleigh, depending on where I spent that particular weekend.
Monday morning..another storm [moved in], no kids. Since the teacher was on the grounds and as long as the students got their work accomplished, we did not have to make up all those days. Good thing, as Don Wunderlich and I had our wedding date set for June 7th, and I fully intended to be married, not teaching until mid-July!

One Sunday in late January, a neighbor flew south to the
Anderson farm with a visitor from out of state. (I still wonder how he
got to this area, as nothing we knew of was moving, no mail service, and we didn't have phones, although we did have electricity.) I asked the
gentleman if he knew whether Don Wunderlich was back from a trip to Michigan, where he'd gone during the holidays, [to] bring back a new car. He responded, 'Yes, and I'm going to the Wunderlich farm from here, want to go along?' If I had had a few more minutes to decide, I probably would have declined the offer, but I said 'Okay, let's go!'

What a sight from that little plane! There was no bare ground to see anywhere from the time we got in the air until we landed on a field near the Wunderlich farm. Every thing was WHITE!

Made it back to the Anderson’s and of course, the next day--no kids due to another storm. We were blocked in till the 4th of March, when the Army plowed us and the entire area out. That evening Chuck Sheelar's Mom sent him to the school and we drove to Kongsberg for needed supplies. The next day it stormed so bad and really blocked everything, rock hard. The Army couldn’t come back a second time so we had to wait until spring when Mother Nature took over and melted all that snow!

Yes, this winter of 2008-09 brings back memories and also reminds us that this is North Dakota, and winters can be open or they can come with a vengeance. So, stay warm, close to home, and be prepared!"

More About Ursula:
Ursula did marry Don Wunderlich. They lived all their lives on a farm near Kongsberg and raised their family there. Ursula was active in the little German Lutheran church at Kongsberg until her recent death, but nothing is left today of that busy little town except the church. Most of the people buried in its cemetery are Ursula's relatives.

2 comments:

Just read your reiteration of Ursula's winter of 48-49. I don't know if you were in ND at the time, but I remember it well. I remember that on the way home from school you had to be careful as the snow was so deep that we could touch the highline wires. Also the roads were piled so high with snow the cars were not visible. Trains were stuck in the snow drifts between Ruso and Kongsberg. I remember in particular one day there was a big D-8 Caterpillar tractor which had been plowing snow on top of the "big hill" just up from our mailbox. It had fallen through a big hard snow drift and was having a bad time getting unstuck. We didn't think too much of the snow as we thought it was normal. Art Schmidt

I often think back to the transportation we used to get to school in those days. Everything from walking, bicycles, horse and sled with Dad driving, riding our own horses and keeping them in the barn. This along with setting traps and checking snares on the ~ 2 mile trip to and from school. We didn't even have electricity at home till about '49. Lots of changes in this old world I still believe we had some of the best teachers that ever existed in that little one room school!!Art Schmidt